Education - page 2

As most students were easing their way into March Break, 11 teams of science students from I.E. Weldon and St. Thomas Aquinas assembled in a room off Weldon’s cafeteria to compete in the second annual Lindsay Engineering Challenge late last week.

Only after they sat down at tables strewn with balsa wood, foam board, glue guns and other paraphernalia did they learn that their design challenge would be to construct a glider that, propelled by a launcher mechanism, could sail the length of the cafeteria while remaining within boundary lines.

The study of history is a revelation of the entire human experience, helping us to make connections between the past and present, and providing us with guidance for the future based on the lessons we have learned.

Marcus Garvey, one of the thinkers I studied as a child growing up in Jamaica, said that a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots. In a similar vein, on the other side of the Atlantic, in a 1948 speech to the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The decade spanning 1980 through 1990 was significant on multiple fronts.

The world watched as the Prince of Wales wed Lady Diana Spencer (1981) and as the Berlin Wall came tumbling down (1989). Canadians cheered on Terry Fox as he began his Marathon of Hope (1980); saw their Constitution repatriated (1982); and handled $1 coins for the first time (1987). Ontarians voted out the Progressive Conservative Party after over four decades in office (1985) and watched the SkyDome’s retractable roof open to a torrential downpour (1989). Here in Victoria County, the Town of Lindsay celebrated its 125th anniversary by painting faces on fire hydrants (1982); the indefatigable Bill Scott represented his constituents in Ottawa; and Union Carbide announced that it would cease production of film, film packaging products, and industrial garbage bags at its Lindsay plant (1989).

By the thousands, teachers, education workers, parents and community allies took their anger to the streets all across Ontario today to say they aren’t happy with the PC government’s planned cuts to education. This included dozens of people right here in Kawartha Lakes, who protested in front of MPP Laurie Scott’s office. Scott also serves as minister of labour.

The Conservative government is in budget consultation mode and Premier Doug Ford has mused about cutting full day Kindergarten, class sizes, and has already slashed $600 million in cuts to student grants and $440 million in funding cuts to universities and colleges.

While the federal government may be considering the merits of a basic income for Canadians, those participating in the Ontario pilot know already how it was changing their lives for the better.

In fact, there were four key ways basic income directly affected people’s work lives, according to survey information – more learning and education; affordability of transportation; starting or maintaining a business; and childcare.

An initiative is taking root in the City of Kawartha Lakes to help students who use nutrition programs at school reap the rewards of eating local foods.

For more than a year, Food For Kids City of Kawartha Lakes has been working to create a ‘Local Food Initiative’ to benefit Student Nutrition Programs (SNPs). The idea is to increase the amount of fresh, healthy food grown/raised within a 100-kilometre radius of Kawartha Lakes that is available to SNPs.

Through funding for the initiative, local food items are being purchased at a lower cost, delivered to Kawartha Lakes Food Source, and then distributed to schools at no additional charge. In some cases, local growers have also donated food to increase the supply available to students.

Teachers, education workers, parents and community allies are planning to rally against cuts to education in front of Laurie Scott’s office on Thursday February 7 from 3:30-4 pm. This will coincide with rallies across Ontario at most MPPs’ offices.

The Conservative government is in budget consultation mode and as the number of announcements about education policy begin to pile up the landscape is increasingly discouraging for educators. Ford ran on a promise to cut 4 per cent from the Ontario budget, a cut that would mean approximately $1 billion to education and more than $8 million in Trillium-Lakelands alone.

In 2019 pre-budget hearings, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) urged the Ontario government to make investments, not cuts, in public education to better prepare all students for success.

“Our students’ education and future should not be sacrificed in the government’s zeal to cut spending, particularly when tax cuts have disproportionately benefited corporations and high-income earners and Ontario’s public program spending as a share of GDP is the lowest in the country,” ETFO president Sam Hammond told members of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. ETFO’s submission can be viewed at www.etfo.ca/link/pbb2019

OBIP Chronicles – More than 33 per cent of respondents to a survey about the Ontario Basis Income Pilot were going back to school to further their education.

Jenna, a woman in her 40s, says her partner was able to go back to school and their son was able to participate in activities that helps with his motor disorder.

“My partner felt previous problems returning,” after the basic income pilot’s cancellation she says in the survey. “We only received a very small amount of money, comparatively, but it made a huge difference.”

More than 1,500 of the 4,000 basic income pilot recipients agreed to help the Basic Income Canada Network and the Ontario Basic Income Network continue working for a basic income. BICN conducted a survey of those people. Well over 400 responses have already come back, representing more than 10 per cent of those receiving basic income in Ontario, allowing us to write this special series. The Lindsay Advocate, working in cooperation with BICN, is pleased to be the media partner highlighting these stories. Names have been changed to protect identities.

True to its commitment to not only providing education, but also to helping its students live out their faith, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in Lindsay has just wrapped up a campaign that saw the school community providing gifts for families in need.

As part of the school’s ‘Be an Angel’ program, the families were identified by St. Vincent de Paul, the Roman Catholic charity, and assigned to the school for some seasonal kindness.

From the Kawartha Lakes Health Coalition On April 18 this year The Ross Memorial Hospital (RMH) posted a notice in … More

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The Lindsay Advocate is an online news magazine for Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, focused on the social and economic wellness of the town. While we cover most aspects of community life, we have a particular interest in poverty reduction.